Journey Under the Sea

Choose Your Own Adventure #2

by R.A. Montgomery, Sittisan Sundaravej (Illustrator), Kriangsak Thongmoon (Illustrator)

Did the lost city of Atlantis really exist or is it just a myth? You are a highly experienced deep sea explorer. But you search for the lost continent of Atlantis is the trip of a lifetime. It will be the most challenging and dangerous mission of your career. Many unknowns will test your courage, abilities, strengths, and judgment. And you will be using newly designed equipment that's never been tested. The cable attaching the Seeker to the ship Maray is extended to its limit. You have come to rest on a ledge near the canyon in the ocean floor that ancient myth says leads to the lost city of Atlantis. You have an experimental diving suit designed to protect you from the intense pressure of the deep. You can also cut the Seeker loose and travel further. As agreed, you signal the Maray: All systems go; it's awesome down here. If you decide to explore the ledge where the Seeker has come to rest, turn to page 6. YOU choose what happens next!

Genres: Choose Your Own Adventure, Fiction, Childrens, Fantasy, Young Adult, Gamebooks, Adventure

144 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1979

About the author

Raymond A. Montgomery (born 1936 in Connecticut) was an author and progenitor of the classic Choose Your Own Adventure interactive children's book series, which ran from 1979 to 2003. Montgomery graduated from Williams College and went to graduate school at Yale University and New York University (NYU). He devoted his life to teaching and education.

In 2004, he co-founded the Chooseco publishing company alongside his wife, fellow author/publisher Shannon Gilligan, with the goal of reviving the CYOA series with new novels and reissued editions of the classics.

He continued to write and publish until his death in 2014.

Reviews

[Jason Koivu · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a Jay Leno-esque, Chinny McStrongchin looking character, you are off to explore the depths of the ocean with hopes of finding Atlantis. Let's go!

1) On my first adventure I fought a ginormous squid, discovered an ancient Greek ship upon which was a map showing a tunnel to the center of the earth. I entered the tunnel and soon the water turned to gas and I had to dodge massive atoms. The world became a shade more psychedelic. Undefined presences surrounded me as I entered a thought world. I'd found Atlanteans! I stayed with them, studying for 1000 thought years and emerged to find the surface of the world quite different from when I left it.

2) On the next adventure I was quickly eaten by sharks.

3) I had another go, got saved by a dolphin (at this point I've noticed that there are a number of ways in which this book allows you to just give up), found and entered a grotto, which turned out to be Atlantis! I got a species-change operation and never returned to the surface again.

4) In my final adventure I took my little underwater craft down into a canyon, where I found another grotto and a submarine. Inside the sub I received instructions on how to get to Atlantis. I met some folks, tried to help them overthrow a tyrannical king, and in order to do so I suggested we put on a play, naturally. In a roundabout way it worked!

This book is just filled will fun adventures. And there are a bunch more endings, all of which look WAY more exciting than my adventures, if the illustrations by Paul Granger are anything to go by. There's some kind of wacky castle pool type thing, cyclones, whales, dudes wearing Kaiser helmets shooting lasers, a ghoulish scientist and more. If I'd come across any of that, this book would easily be four stars, maybe five!

[Jeffrey Caston · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had a prior version back in the day. I liked this updated version. I wasn't crazy about the new artwork, but that wasn't much of an issue. Overall I liked it a lot.

In this one you are a underwater explorer, primarily trying to find Atlantis. You fend off and/or flee from giant squid and sharks. You have to make decisions on whether getting the bends is worth it vs. the risk of getting bitten in half (okay it wasn't that graphic).

The various adventures clipped along. The cover says it has 42 endings, which is pretty impressive for a volume spanning on 117 pages. It was a trifle obvious what would happen if you chose certain paths. To me they were obviously paths where you choose to give up on your passion. And the Atlanteans aren't shall we say, the warmest people on earth.

I only maybe got to 10 different endings, so I will certainly be able to go back to this one, which is cool.

UPDATE: Now having gotten ahold of a copy of the old version from the early 80s, though I liked the earlier version better, particularly the artwork, I now have a better appreciation for both. This is one of the better CYOA premises. I like this one. Still not my favorite (top spot still held by Deadwood City), but this one is good stuff.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book probably loses a star, because I made the mistake of buying the re-issue, rather than the original I read as a kid. They screwed up the artwork, first of all, replacing the original illustrations with lame sketches by cut-rate illustrators. The original art wasn't that great, either, really, but if they weren't going to improve on it, they should have kept it for nostalgia's sake. There have also been subtle edits to the text. I'm sure my 1978 edition never mentioned a "PDA," whatever that is.
All that aside, though, I have to admit that this wasn't my favorite "Choose Your Own Adventure," even when I was a kid and had the "real" version. Unlike the others in the series, you role-played a boring grownup, instead of a kid on an adventure. The hero was a very manly male, too, as shown in those lamented illustrations (I recall a very square jaw), which would have a certain kitsch value now, but I found it off-putting at the time. The structure is weird, too. There are several quick dead-ends you have to navigate at the beginning, before you can start making choices that allow you to have any kind of adventure. I think I would get discouraged having to start over so many times and move on to something else. In fairness, the concept was fairly new in 1978, and they were still figuring out what worked best.
Re-reading it as an adult, I had more patience, and I did find my way to some of the more exotic adventures tucked into the various storylines. They aren’t anything amazingly original, but they are fun. Next time I plan to review a “Choose Your Own Adventure,” though, I’ll hunt down an original edition.

[Weathervane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good. Montgomery's prose leaves something to be desired, but the book is always imaginative.

I disliked the way the Atlanteans were subtly different within each plot branch. It grew to be rather confusing, as you're always wondering whether they're the same group of people you met in your last read-through. Basically, internal consistency is low.

[Nick · Rating 2 out of 5]

Taking a small break from horrors and thrillers again. This CYOA, while entertaining, was all over the place and didn't deliver on an adequate ending. Your goal as a great underwater explorer was to discover Atlantis. So a perfect ending would have been to discover said city and return to land as a now famous and rich explorer. Something to that effect. While there were many endings with you discovering the city, many of them had you staying in the city in some form. Or returning before discovering. Or dying.

You could get eaten by a shark, killed by a serpent, killed by a grouper.
Get killed traveling to center of earth
Have an operation to give you gills so you could live in Atlantis forever
Become an advisor to the king of Atlantis. Become a famous musician in Atlantis. Help a revolution against the king of Atlantis. Flooded Atlantis by accident. Imprisoned in Atlantis. Become a prisoner in Atlantean zoo. Become frozen by a ray gun. Become an energy source and travel through time and space. Drowned numerous times. Saved by crew members but they don't believe your story. Etc etc etc.

2.5 to 3 stars but still fun and entertaining

[Betsy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This series allows the reader to do something he or she may never in his/her own life be able to do...and choose his or her OWN adventure! Plus it is about the sea, which is totally rad! Don't settle for the outcome thrust upon you by society! Choose your OWN adventure man!

I am currently trying to locate the publishers of "The Bible" (see my review of this book) and see if I could perhaps spearhead a project to convert it into a choose your own adventure book!

[Arthur Graham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just thinking of this book is giving me the bends all over again...

[Alba · Rating 5 out of 5]

esto si que es literatura y no las cosas que damos en clase

[Carol · Rating 5 out of 5]

I learnt about these books last year, I can't even remember how I happened into them, it could've been my boyfriend telling me, or after reading about this somewhere else. Either way, we started looking for them ever since and we managed to download a few on Kindle, but the reading experience is a bit hard there.
Finally I found these on my library and I decided to take this one out, which I saw had lots of endings. I absolutely loved it!!!
This one has 42 different endings, and after reading the whole thing (which took me about 3 hours, because I was keeping track of my decisions to make sure I covered them all), it feels like I read 42 different stories. Each decision takes you to a completely different place, different adventure. You die more than once, you get pulled out of the search, you even find Atlanteans, but each time you encounter them they are different, they're not even the same Atlanteans, and I loved that, because it means you can go back, make different decisions and have a new adventure all together. And part of the amazingness of the book is that you can have very common endings (like the kind where you decide not to explore anymore so you go back to the surface and no Atlantis is found), simplistic ones (like when you decide to blow up something and you screw up everything), or really complex ones (where you find Atlantis and things turn into a really hard core scifi adventure with a different race).
The writing is very simple, it couldn't have been done any other way I think, because you can't cram 42 endings with a complex narrative in such tiny books. You need something that takes you decision after decision quickly, and that makes you feel like all the adventure is under your control, which it totally is.
I can't believe how much I enjoyed this. They might be made for kids, but man, this is great for adults, I haven't had this much fun playing with a book in forever. And never had I been able to make so many decisions on a story. I'm in love, I want to read them all.

[M.L. Little · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fourth-grader and I read this for two days straight, but somehow made only good decisions and came to a happy ending. He wanted to go back and read it again to see what else could happen, but ended up choosing a different book.

[Em · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not sure which ending I hated more, being captured for a Zoo in Atlantis, or getting eaten by a mola mola.

[Javier Gil Jaime · Rating 3 out of 5]

¡Menudo viaje submarino! 🐙

[Lindsay · Rating 4 out of 5]

That was my favorite one when I was young!

[Josiah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Journey Under the Sea isn't book one of the original Choose Your Own Adventure series, but it was R.A. Montgomery's first contribution, and in its own way is as much a pioneer as The Cave of Time. You are a deep-sea diver with the Maray, a research ship searching for the lost continent Atlantis. As our story begins, you ease into the lightless ocean depths on the Seeker, a one-man vessel engineered to withstand extreme pressures. The aquatic darkness is full of danger, but as you settle onto the ocean floor you must exit the Seeker to explore the terrain in your oxygenated suit. Will you stick with the ledge you landed on, or cut loose from the ship and dive deeper?

Stay close to the ship and you'll observe a giant squid in the area. You can signal the Maray to pull you back to the surface without delay, but you might end up battling the giant squid armed only with a spear gun. Once you return to exploring, without the giant squid to worry about, you may discover a manmade cavern that leads to Atlantis. Meeting the Atlanteans comes at a cost: to preserve their separatist culture they are likely to forbid you from ever returning to the human world. Are you okay not seeing your family or friends again if it means learning the secrets of this lost civilization? You could explore a sunken Greek ship instead, which conceals its own potential route to Atlantis. Sonar shows the hole is so deep it may go to earth's center; are you ready to risk such a journey? Another path to Atlantis reveals the lost continent has seen better days. The Atlanteans you meet claim the king is a despot, but do you want any part in a political revolution you don't fully grasp? You could form a plan to overthrow the king, or propose to assist him instead, but either way you wield a lot of leverage in this undersea drama.

Avenues to adventure splinter off in many directions. The early stages of your underwater excursion might see you stalked by a shark, or discover a fissure in the rock that emits bubbles, hinting at a humanoid presence. The Seeker shows signs of malfunction this deep down; should you harness the bubbles to buoy you back to the Maray? Saltwater dynamics can change in a heartbeat, and on the way up you'll likely be trapped inside a violent whirlpool. Don't be discouraged; obstacles like these may mean you're on the cusp of Atlantis. Get to the right spot and you'll meet the bizarre-looking Atlanteans, aliens who landed on earth thousands of years ago. They have no need of physical bodies, and near total control of space-time travel. Are they about to disclose the secret of the universe? Are you willing to relinquish the existence you know to become like them? Your original aspiration to locate Atlantis may have bigger implications that you could have conceived.

The writing is often dry and many endings are underdeveloped, but Journey Under the Sea is a gamebook classic. It opens up the throttle on exploration in a scary setting, but with a clear goal: to confirm the survival of Atlantis. You'll fight sea monsters and eerie hydro-phenomena to reach that goal, but the Atlanteans have lessons to teach, and you have the capacity to reciprocate. Despite extensive story branching, internal continuity is adequate. R.A. Montgomery on occasion wanders too deep into metaphysical crevasses, but this is a memorable book helped by Paul Granger's indelible illustrations. I like the innovation of a couple endings that offer an alternative finish if you "don't like" the first one. All things considered, Journey Under the Sea is a good first Choose Your Own Adventure for Mr. Montgomery.

[Mark Austin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ah, Choose Your Own Adventure, that paper bridge between that 5th grade fantasy map (see my Hobbit review) and my life-changing discovery of Dungeons & Dragons in the 7th grade.

Some of them were great, some punishing, some arbitrary, but they revealed to me for the first time that I could make choices and that they had immediate effect the course on my (fictional) reality. For a kid whose home life felt largely hopeless and inescapable, the empowerment of making my own way by the power of my own choices and facing consequences traceable directly to my decisions - wow!

While day-to-day reality seemed to deal out arbitrary, unpredictable punishments regardless of my actions, here was a place where I could experiment and learn and grow in safety and if I was punished there was always a why.

[nov · Rating 3 out of 5]

udah lama punya buku ini. waktu kecil di beliin papa di lapak2 buku bekas bareng setumpuk buku2 bekas lainnya. dulu papa kl pulang kerja emang hobi nyariin anaknya yang satu ini buku2 bekas di lapak2 pinggir jalan daerah jatinegara. tujuan awalnya sih biar hemat krn buku baru mahal. hehehe. tapi sekarang si papa agak tega soalnya anaknya gak pernah dibeliin buku2 bekas lagi alhasil uang bulanan cepet abis buat beli sendiri :p

yang menarik dari buku ini karena buku ini gak cuma terdiri dari satu tapi banyak cerita. kalo baca ulang pasti ceritanya beda. kayak sulap emang bisa berubah2. dan kadang saya suka curang kl baca buku ini. kn di setiap halaman ada pilihan tuh, biasanya saya baca dua2nya trus pilih yang paling bagus dh :D

[Jamie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the first CYOA book I ever read. I read it in 4th grade, and was hooked on CYOAs. I remember being blown away by the concept of a book told in the 2nd-person.

I cannot wait to introduce my own kids to these wonderful books.

[Jeff Peacock · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a generic rating/review for this whole series. It was a favorite for me growing up in the 80s.. kind of a simpler off shot of early RPG’s and text based adventures that came into Vogue in the era

[Christopher Desruisseau · Rating 3 out of 5]

A descent book, but there are better books in the series.

[Remo · Rating 4 out of 5]

La serie de Elige tu propia aventura es, literalmente, un clásico de nuestra infancia. He releído algunos, años después, y me parecen un poco cortos de miras, limitados en las posibilidades, pero cuando tenía 10 años cada uno de ellos era una maravilla lista para ser explorada hasta que hubiera dado todo lo que tenía dentro.
Al final siempre sabías que ibas a recorrer todos y cada uno de los caminos posibles. La emoción estaba, por tanto, en ganar y pasarte la historia al primer intento. Si no podías, pues nada, seguro que en el intento 18 acababas encontrando el camino. A veces los autores iban "a pillar", poniéndote los resultados buenos detrás de decisiones que eran claramente anómalas.
Recuerdo haber aprendido tanto palabras como hechos y datos en estos libros. No nadar contra la corriente cuando quieres llegar a tierra, dónde colocarse cuando un avión va a despegar, un montón de cosas interesantes y un montón de historias vividas, decenas por cada libro, que convirtieron a las serie en una colección fractal, donde cada vez podías elegir un libro nuevo entre los que ya tenías.
Llegué hasta el tomo 54 y dejé de tener interés por la serie, pero la serie siguió hasta superar los 180 títulos. Tal vez mis hijos quieran seguir el camino que yo empecé. Si quieres que lo sigan, pasa a la página 7.

[Glen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thanks NetGallery for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

There is no fault with the writing and with the illustrations. When I saw the 'choose your own adventure', with the title, I knew I would hate the book. Then again, this book was constructed for a child.

The book started out well enough, but the initial decision had me jumping from page 13 to 84. A long jump for an e-book. Trying to follow some of the branching's led me back and fourth. After a while I gave up and just paged through the book.

I imagine that the writing and illustrations were a challenge to put together.

[Allison · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pros:
Loved the subject matter, lots of fun sea creatures and sea exploration themed stuff
Blue whale and mola mola!
Lots of interesting, surprising endings

Cons:
Some of the transitions were clunky
A lot of the alternate options were just turn back, which is boring
I didn’t love the Atlantis plots it got old there were too many similar ones

[Jorge Rosas · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one was heavy, there’s so many paths and ways to move around, and you can even end up in another line so easily, the endings are quite different and not many paths lead to the promised land.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

SO FUN I love choose your own adventure books

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good! This is one of the better CYOA I've read for/to my tween book club. Only one storyline was kinda weird, floating around electrons and atoms ... I noted to the children it must be like the quantum-realm in Ant-Man, and they gave the nod of approval. We survived all but our last ending, and ended the meeting after getting vaporized.

[Kaylee Yergeau · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good nostalgia 😊 fun read

[Cassie Nguyen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had all the choose your own adventures on a permanent check-out cycle as a kid. They hold up and get 5 stars from my 7-year-old!

[Ethan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a wild ride. So many different choices to be made and all leading to wildly different conclusions. Some didn’t even seem to line up with the mythology of each other but this was great.

I love a good choose your own adventure book.

Read this for the September/October Shark Book Club book. Readers of the Lost Shark on Fable and Storygraph.

[Deryk Rumbold · Rating 3 out of 5]

forgot how fun these are!

[Cherise · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was super fun to read. I learned very quickly that making logical choices was almost a surefire way to come to an untimely end, but that just made me want to read it over and over again as I tried to find the longer storylines and see what mysteries I could uncover.